Ask yourself this: could your business survive a full week without you, no phone, no email, no decisions from you at all?
That's the question behind Maartje van Krieken's conversation with Cory Blumenfeld, founder and CEO of BlueMoso, who built and exited multiple companies before landing on his 90/10 rule. Ninety percent of what most leaders do daily can be handed off. The other ten percent, the vision and judgment calls that actually move a business forward, is the real job. Cory learned this firsthand when a sudden illness pulled him out for a week, and the business ran fine without him. Maartje ties this straight to valuation. A company that can't function without its founder is worth less than that founder probably thinks, and the usual culprit is unclear ownership rather than a lack of trust.
The conversation then turns to AI, and Cory is direct that it can't fix a delegation problem for leaders who never learned to delegate to people in the first place. AI clears out busy work. It doesn't replace judgment. Maartje pushes back with an example from her own experience, where a polished AI-assisted report turned out to rest on a completely wrong assumption. What happens when a tool built to move faster just moves a mistake faster too?
They close by flipping the lens toward investors and board members to ask what separates a leader still buried in the weeds from one built to scale. The answer, they argue, shows up in small things: how a leader talks about their team, their time, and what they're willing to admit they don't know.
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 Could Your Business Survive a Week Without You?
02:57 The 90/10 Rule of Leadership Delegation
06:13 How to Build Processes You Can Hand Off
08:31 Warning Signs of Poor Delegation on a Leadership Team
10:59 Delegating to AI vs Delegating to People
16:20 The Risk of AI Errors at Scale
18:24 What Investors and Board Members Look For
25:42 Final Leadership Advice From Cory Blumenfeld
Connect with Cory Blumenfeld:
Connect with Cory on LinkedIn
Visit the BlueMoso Website
Cory Blumenfeld is a 5x founder with two exits and more than a decade of experience across startups, operations, sales, and product. Across his companies, he has helped raise nearly $5 million and built an audience of more than 67,000 followers on LinkedIn.
Having started businesses in industries he knew nothing about, Cory learned that success rarely comes from having all the answers. Today, he is the founder of BlueMoso, which helps business owners get their time back with high-performing virtual assistants matched to how they actually work.
Cory is on a mission to help one million business owners spend less time buried in day-to-day tasks and more time focused on what matters most, whether that's growing their business, serving more clients, or building a life outside of work.
Connect with Maartje van Krieken:
Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn
Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website
Visit The Business Emergency Room website
Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube
Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack
Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.
Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm
